think and act

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Interview with Jemma Bagley and Brenda Seaton about The Sound of Water Haiku Hike led by poet / artist Paul Conneally and coordinated by Jemma Bagley of Charnwood Arts.

Conneally asks Jemma and Brenda, rather than himself, to appear on the radio and talk about the work. This mediation between artist and the work and the wider public through community and media extends the scope of the piece inviting and allowing further interpretation and insights into the work than the artist could perhaps imagine.

The work led to a publication ‘The Sound of Water’ and is an example of how psychogeography / splacist approaches can work to explore areas and planning schemes. Here a Section 106 planning order where the builders are required to pay for public art is subverted from the norm when Conneally and Bagley use the builder’s money to work with a group that are against the building development. The housing trust and builders involved ran with the idea and the work produced positive and real interface situations between the existing community, builders and new community.

Poems from the action group are then incorporated into the estate as metal haiku benches made by sculptor Richard Thornton.